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The Citizen reports that thousands of Makro employees embarked on a nationwide strike on Wednesday after an ongoing wage dispute could not be resolved.
Employees affiliated with the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) are demanding results, after four months of wage negotiations. The employees want a 12% wage increase, while the union has rejected Makro’s counteroffer of 4.5%, saying it “will not sustain workers”. Saccawu spokesperson Sithembele Tshwete said employees and their families would struggle to meet “even the basic household needs” with a 4.5% increase (list of demands outlined in Citizen report). But according to Makro, a 12% wage increase and increasing the sales commission from 10% to 20%, were both “intuitively unrealistic”. Makro went on to indicate in a statement: “We can confirm that Makro was advised on 24 October of Saccawu’s intention to embark on a three-day strike at our stores. It should be noted that this decision has been taken unilaterally by the union in the absence of their conducting strike ballots across the Makro store base. This approach is consistent with our impression that the union has been negotiating in bad faith.” According to Makro, strike ballots had been conducted at six stores on Monday and three stores “voted against strike action”. Makro claimed all stores were operating, despite the strike, and no disruption to normal store trading activity had been anticipated.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Cheryl Kahla at The Citizen
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page